According to distinguished religious statesman Rajan Zed, co-organizer of this Service along with Douglas Diversity Student Club of WNC; faith leaders belonging to Christian (various denominations), Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Baha’i and Native American traditions blessed the graduates with their respective prayers in this Service. Dance and music also formed part of this ceremony and a representative of non-believers also addressed the Service.

Religious leaders who participated included Saint Teresa of Avila Catholic Community Carson City Pastor Father Charles T. Durante, Carson City 1st United Methodist Church Pastor Reverend Dixie Jennings-Teats, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Quorum of the Seventy Member George Marion Keele, Northern Nevada Muslim Community President Doctor Sherif A. Elfass, Universal Society of Hinduism President Rajan Zed, Reno Buddhist Center Priest Reverend Jikai’ Phil Bryan, South Lake Tahoe Temple Bat Yam Rabbi Evon J. Yakar, Baha’i teacher Catherine B. Thayer, and Paiute Elder Ralph E. Burns. Patrick J. McCarthy from Reno Freethinkers (atheists, agnostics, skeptics, humanists, etc., promoting secular values) also addressed Service held at Carson City Community Center.

Nevada State Treasurer Kate Marshall and Carson City Mayor Robert L. Crowell also rendered advice to the graduates on the occasion and WNC President Doctor Carol A. Lucey was also present. Acclaimed classical musician from India Thakur Chakrapani Singh, prominent dancer Doctor L. Martina Young, well known area musician Jim R. Eaglesmith and tabla expert Pete Fairley also blessed the graduating class through their respective mediums. Starting with traditional lamp lighting, it also included a choir performance titled “Benediction” directed by James M. Weismann. It closed with diverse faith and other leaders, with their raised right hands, jointly repeating a universal prayer after Douglas Diversity Student Club of WNC Secretary Jesseca Pacheco Larios, thus blessing graduates present and in absentia.

Rajan Zed, who is an interfaith leader, pointed out that purpose of this Baccalaureate Service was to root the graduating class in divine spiritual tradition so that they would have a spiritually meaningful life in addition to material success. There were plans to make it an annual feature, Zed added.

Baccalaureate service basically means service where a sermon is delivered to the graduating class. In use since at least eighth century, origins of the baccalaureate service point to an Oxford University statute of 1432, which required each bachelor to deliver a sermon in Latin as part of the academic exercise. There is restored interest in baccalaureate services in number of educational institutions across USA, like Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Dartmouth, Brown, etc.

WNC, with tagline “Start Here, Go Anywhere” and multiple campuses, is a comprehensive community college that serves over 5,000 students in about 18,000-square-miles area. Mission Statement of WNC includes “nurtures individual potential and respects differences”, which is known for its observatory.

Details of pictures attached:

1.    Diverse religious and other leaders blessing the graduating class with a joint prayer.

2.    Rajan Zed addressing the Service while other faith and other leaders are seen in the back. (Picture by Diane Black)

3.    Various faith and other leaders who participated in the service. (Picture by Saria Bukhary)

Bollywood actress Ameesha Patel finally appeared at Cannes 2013. The 37-year-old actress flaunted an  ‘Indian’ look for both occasions.

She put on a  Manish Malhotra design outfit at Shortcut Romeo Portrait Session .

Ameesha Patel walked the red carpet for the screening of ‘All is Lost’. She was accompanied by co-star of the movie ‘Shortcut Romeo’ Puja Gupta.

She wore  a blue and peach lehnga for the occasion. Gorgeous Ameesha raised the fashion bar on the Cannes red carpet with this dazzling look in a Manish Malhotra gown.

Ameesha Patel starred ‘Shortcut Romeo’ premiered at the prestigious Cannes Film festival on Wednesday at the French Riviera.

Shortcut Romeo is an upcoming romantic thriller movie, starring Neil Nitin Mukesh in the title role with Puja Gupta as his love interest and Ameesha Patel in a negative character.

via Gorgeous Ameesha Patel at Cannes 2013.

Three top executives of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd had a close shave on Wednesday morning at Mumbai airport, after one of the engines of their Dassault Falcon 900EX aicraft shut down 14 minutes after take off from Mumbai at 2:27 pm for Delhi, Mumbai Mirror reported.

After the pilot declared an emergency, the plane was given priority landing at Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport, and it landed safely with a single engine at 2:45 pm. The executives were to attend a company meeting in Delhi.

The same aircraft had flown Mumbai Indians players from Delhi to Mumbai after their match with Chennai Super Kings the previous night.

RIL has three aircraft: the Dassaut Falcon 900EX, Airbus 319 and Boeing Business jet.

The DGCA has ordered an inquiry into the incident.

Reliance Group head of communications Tushar Pania said, the plane could have continued its journey with the other engine, but as a mark of utmost precaution, it returned to Mumbai for an emergency landing.

via Reliance aircraft engine shuts down mid-air, makes emergency landing.

Kamasutra actress Sherlyn Chopra grabbed French media attention by wearing a white and gold Indian lehenga choli and matched her attire with south Indian-style jewellery and donned minimal makeup.
The sexy siren is there to promote her upcoming movie “Kamasutra 3D” with the team.

This was her second appearance at the red carpet this year. She was criticized by media for her first attire,  a black transparent cleavage revealing outfit.

The movie Kamasutra 3D is based on Vatsayayana’s famous sex manual Kamasutra. The flick is expected to release in  theatres in August. Sherlyn Chopra plays the Indian princess in the film

Sherlyn last year became the first Indian actress to pose for adult film magazine Playboy.

via After wearing transparent attire, Sherlyn Chopra flaunts a ‘desi look’ at Cannes.

The CBSE however, has not announced the dates of the results declaration officially. According to sources, the results are expected to be announced on May 26. However, CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi recently informed in Chandigarh that the students can expect the results of Class 12 Board “by the end of next week”.

According to sources, the office of the Controller of Examination (CoE) of CBSE has yet to call a meeting to decide the date of the result declaration. They all however have been unanimous in saying that the result will be declared at the end of the month, without specifying a particular date.

Also, CBSE Chandigarh Regional Director, R J Khanderao has been quoted saying that the results would be declared on May 25 as the process of the result declaration was underway.

To facilitate students in accessing the Class 10 and Class 12 board exam results, the CBSE is working out a process to provide the result through SMS, like they did in the ICSE examination result.

There seems to be much anxiety amongst the JEE (main) students as their Class 12 result will determine their admission to various prestigious professional institutes. The CBSE declared the result for JEE (Mains) on May 7 but did not prepare the final rank list which would be prepared by July 7 only when the result of Class 12 is declared and the scores incorporated in the final list.

For admission to various undergraduate engineering courses at NITs, IITs and other institutes, 60% of weightage is given to JEE main result while 40% is given to marks scored in Class 12 Board. The CBSE class 12 Examination 2013 was conducted from March 1, 2013 to April 17, 2013.

To access the CBSE Class 12 results, the students are advised to log on at the official website of the CBSE http://cbseresults.nic.in/ to check their results.

To ensure seamless access of the CBSE Class 12the result, the CBSE will be hosting the results with the technical support of National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

The CBSE is a board of education that works under the Union government of India. The board came into being in the year, 1952 and caters to all the Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs), Jawahar  Navodaya Vidyalayas, schools approved by the Central government and private schools. The CBSE is responsible for conducting examinations for Class 10 and Class 12, besides a few other examinations.

This year the CBSE Class 12 results are expected to me much better than the previous years and the students may be improving their marks tally.

In 2012, while the class 10 CBSE results were declared on May 24, the Class 12 result could be announced only on May 28, 2012. This year, the results of Class 12 are being declared two days earlier.

In 2012, while Class 10 recorded a pass percentage of 98.19, the Class 12 CBSE results saw a drop of around 20 percentage points.

The state government is fooling Jats of Haryana. The so-called benefits announced for the SBCs are neither legal nor valid YASHPAL MALIK Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti national president

CHANDIGARH: Turning down a demand for providing reservation to five special backward classes (SBCs) in the forthcoming municipal corporation (MC) elections in Haryana, the state government has added fuel to fire.

The refusal came last week after the state election commission, which had received representations from some of the SBCs that comprise Jats, Jat Sikhs, Rors, Bishnois and Tyagis to contest the MC elections from reserved wards, sought clarification from the urban local bodies department.

State election commissioner Dharam Vir had sent the representation to urban local bodies department principal secretary P Raghavendra Rao, who, in turn, sought the opinion of the legal department, sources said. It was the legal department that said no to the demand.

The reason cited was that there was no mention of ‘special backward classes’ in the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973, while the Act spelled out various benefits for the backward classes (BCs) and other backward classes (OBCs).

Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti national president Yashpal Malik, state president Dharampal Dhariwal and Kadyan khap leader Naresh Kadyan minced no words in condemning the state government’s “farce” on reservations for the SBCs. They said Jats had sought to contest from wards reserved for the BCs but the state government’s refusal had exposed its “sham”.

“The government is fooling Jats of Haryana,” Malik said, adding that Jat leaders were angry over not being included in the OBC list. “The so-called benefits announced for the SBCs are neither legal nor valid,” he said. Jat leaders had apprised MS Chopra, principal officer on special duty (OSD) to chief minister, of their anguish in a meeting with him on March 24 in Jind, Malik said.

Dhariwal said government posts had not been reserved for the SBCs in spite of a notification of December 14, 2012, as per which 10% seats would be reserved for them. “We plan to apprise the government of our demands again and might protest if our grievances are not resolved,” he added.

http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

The steepest jump in daytime temperatures was recorded at Ballabgarh with a new high of 45.8° C.

Other parts of Faridabad also recorded high temperatures such as sector 55 at 45.1° C, Sector 16 at 44.6° C, Badkhal at 45.3° C and Gurgaon at 45.3° C.

The heartbreaking remains of Plaza Towers Elementary School have been released, giving a greater insight into the complete devastation of the tornado.

Seven of the school’s students died during the storm on Monday, all of whom drowned when water mains broke near the spot where they were hiding.

The school did not have a safe room or underground basement shelter, which will inevitably come under great scrutiny as the residents of Moore, Oklahoma face the daunting task of rebuilding their lives.

What once was: The photos of the remains of Plaza Towers Elementary School shows how even the rooms that were spared by Monday’s tornado still show major damage

Horrifying: The friendly images of zoo animal murals strike a sad contrast when seen next to the ceiling that is no longer attached to the school

Powerful: Search and rescue teams took pictures of the cars that were found in the school’s cafeteria and library (pictured above and below)

Force: The cars were lifted by the winds which clocked in at more than 210 miles per hour

The new pictures of Plaza Towers show some similarities to a typical elementary school- a mural with a giraffe on a wall, a classroom with plastic blue chairs just high enough to fit young children during class.

Other classrooms still have the construction board cut-outs from various activities on the wall, just under the alphabet.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329359/Heartbreaking-photos-inside-destroyed-Oklahoma-elementary-school-seven-students-died-tornado.html#ixzz2U5FB0QZc
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

via Heartbreaking photos from inside the destroyed Oklahoma elementary school where seven students died during the tornado | Mail Online.

But within minutes the full bloody horror of the Woolwich terror attack was unfolding live on the internet.

Stunned witnesses sent dozens of messages describing graphically the unstoppable carnage taking place before their eyes.

Two assailants rammed their car into an off-duty soldier from the barracks nearby before stabbing and slashing him to death with knives and cleavers, shouting ‘Allah Akbar’ – God is Great – the battle-cry of Muslim jihadists around the world.

As they dragged their victim in the street, dozens of passers-by took photographs and videos.

Then, in an unspeakably chilling act, one of the killers casually held ‘media’ interviews with random members of the public as he waited calmly for armed police to arrive.

Standing with bloody hands and two large knives, the man looked into the camera and said: ‘You people will never be safe.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329356/Woolwich-shooting-incident-Crazed-animals–news-savage-attack-exploded-Twitter.html#ixzz2U5E4vwnN
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

दिल्ली पुलिस की स्पेशल सेल ने आईपीएल मैचों में स्पॉट फिक्सिंग करने वाले बुकीज के तीसरे मॉड्यूल का खुलासा किया है। यह मॉड्यूल दीपक कुमार नामक बुकी चलाता था।

वह मूल रूप से पंजाब के पटियाला का रहने वाला है। स्पॉट फिक्सिंग में उसकी मदद एक और शख्स करता था जिसके नाम का खुलासा अभी नहीं हो सका है।

उसकी गिरफ्तारी के लिए स्पेशल सेल की एक टीम को पंजाब रवाना किया गया है। स्पेशल सेल के अधिकारी के अनुसार दीपक पंजाब में अपना जाल फैला रखा था।

इससे पूर्व स्पेशल सेल बुकीज के दो अन्य माड्यूल का भी खुलासा कर चुकी है जिसमें पहला मॉड्यूल नागपुर के चंद्रेश और औरंगाबाद के सुनील भाटिया नामक बुकीज का मॉड्यूल शामिल है। तीनों मॉड्यूल के 15 बुकीज को स्पेशल सेल गिरफ्तार कर चुकी है।

via IPL Spot fixing: cricket, crime, match fixing, delhi crime – साईं मंदिर से जुड़े IPL में फंसे बुकीज के तार, यहां भी चल रहा था एक गोरखधंधा! – www.bhaskar.com.